{"id":794422,"date":"2019-04-02T09:11:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T15:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=363878"},"modified":"2019-04-02T09:11:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T15:11:58","slug":"proposed-marijuana-banking-bill-aims-to-move-industry-away-from-cash-only-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/proposed-marijuana-banking-bill-aims-to-move-industry-away-from-cash-only-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed marijuana banking bill aims to move industry away from cash-only business"},"content":{"rendered":"
The SAFE Banking Act, which would provide federal protection for financial institutions that serve state-authorized marijuana businesses, advanced out of committee in the U.S. House on Thursday.<\/strong>
Photo by John F. Russell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2014 Legislation that would provide federal protection for financial institutions that serve state-authorized marijuana and ancillary businesses passed a U.S. House committee Thursday.<\/p>\n

The House Financial Services Committee voted, 45-15, to advance the proposed bill after amending it to include provisions to provide a safe harbor for insurance companies and improve access of financial services to minority- and women-owned cannabis businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historic and critical step forward for the nation\u2019s burgeoning cannabis industry,\u201d Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. \u201cRegardless of where members stand on legalization, they can agree that it is in the public interest to make banking available to cannabis businesses in states where it is legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks generally balk at servicing the marijuana industry for fear it could expose them to legal trouble from the federal government, which still considers marijuana illegal.<\/p>\n

As a result, a large portion of the fledgling industry is left to operate on a cash-only basis, which creates security, money laundering and other criminal concerns.<\/p>\n

The measure would address that difficulty while helping cannabis businesses that have struggled to obtain the financing needed for operations and expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SAFE Banking Act would go a long way toward improving safety, transparency, access and justice in the cannabis industry,\u201d Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Financial industry groups such as the American Bankers Association and Credit Union National Association have come out in support of the bill, saying its members have found themselves in a difficult situation because of the conflict between state and federal law.<\/p>\n

Among other things, the proposed measure would prevent federal banking regulators from punishing financial institutions that serve cannabis-related businesses that comply with state laws.<\/p>\n

The proposal was originally introduced by Reps. Ed Perlmutter, of Colorado, and Denny Heck, of Washington state, both Democrats, as well as Ohio Republicans Steve Stivers and Warren Davidson.<\/p>\n

It now goes to the full House for consideration, the Marijuana Business Daily reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SAFE Banking Act, which would provide federal protection for financial institutions that serve state-authorized marijuana businesses, advanced out of committee in the U.S. House on Thursday.Photo by John F. Russell DENVER \u2014 Legislation that would provide federal protection for financial institutions that serve state-authorized marijuana and ancillary businesses passed a U.S. House committee Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-794422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 07:13:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}